The Broncos may not have a quarterback determined, but they do have one big goal in mind. Regardless of who is under (or more likely a few feet behind) center, Mike McCoy has his offense’s sights set on becoming the best in the league.
That may be a lofty goal, considering the unit ranked 22nd in points and 27th in yards last season, but wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders says the goal last year was never to be the best.
“Obviously last year we were in an offense more under the center, a less-passing offense that never really was the No. 1 offense in the NFL,” Sanders told Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro on Friday following training camp practice. “Never slung the ball. Always wanted to be somewhere in the middle range in terms of offensively. That was the goal. To be 15th-, 14th-best offense, [and the] No. 1 defense.”
That mindset is gone with the departure of former offensive coordinator Rick Dennison and head coach Gary Kubiak and the return of McCoy.
“Whereas this year,” Sanders continued, “we got a guy that’s coming in saying we’re going to be the No. 1 offense.”
However, Sanders was careful to say he doesn’t want to take anything away from the offense that helped deliver a Super Bowl 50 championship.
“It’s hard to even talk about last year’s offense or the year previous because you won a Super Bowl with it,” Sanders said, “but at the same time, football is becoming a passing league. So, obviously as a receiver, I want to sling the ball. I want to go no-huddle. I want to be slinging it around, throwing it around. Obviously this is more of a modernized offense.
“I don’t want to make it seem like I’m sitting up here bashing last year’s offense, or Kubiak’s offense,” Sanders said. “It’s nothing like that. It’s just this offense is more wide-receiver friendly.”
Sanders has plenty of reasons to believe Denver can re-emerge as one of the NFL’s preeminent offenses in a more passing-centric NFL. McCoy engineered three different offensive units with three different quarterbacks for the Broncos from 2010 to 2012, culminating in a No. 2 scoring and No. 4 total offense ranking in his final year before the Chargers nabbed him for a head-coaching gig.
The year after McCoy’s departure, a branch of his coaching tree (and now the head coach in Miami), Adam Gase, helped engineer the best offensive season in NFL history – one that saw Peyton Manning throw a record 55 touchdown passes in one season.
Of course, McCoy in 2012 and Gase in 2013 benefitted from having a first-ballot Hall of Famer throwing the ball in their offenses. The quarterback options in Denver in 2017 are not yet at the same level as Manning.
While Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch battle it out to determine who will be the starter, Sanders admits that not knowing can have its effects.
When asked if he’d like to know sooner or later who will start, Sanders says he’s willing to be patient, but admitted he’d like to get his timing down now and get more meaningful reps with whoever is going to be the eventual starter.
“Well, obviously I’m in between as well,” Sanders said, “but it’d be good to have a starting quarterback – you know, who’s the guy – while we are in training camp just so we can get some work. Like right now, I’d be wanting to throw with a quarterback right now, five or six routes just to get timing – knowing that timing is going to matter during the game. Whereas right now, you [could] be throwing with a quarterback, you don’t know if that timing’s even going to matter in a game.
“So, it’s kind of hard to pick what guy it is, but at the same time, I understand. The Broncos ‘gotta make the right decision, so they’re just waiting it out.”
As Sanders and the rest of the wide receivers wait for that decision, the mission remains the same: Be the best.
“We got [an offensive coordinator] saying we’re going to be the No. 1 offense. We got a defensive coordinator saying we’re going to be the No. 1 defense, so I think we’re in attack mode, and that’s what I like.”
Listen to the full interview with Sanders, including which of his teammates he thinks would be best to chauffeur him to practice, in the podcast below.
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